USSC issues decision on copyright and public domain

The United States Supreme Court issued a decision today in Golan v. Holder on the constitutionality of measures to apply copyright to certain works not previously covered by copyright. The majority (6-2) held that the measures were constitutional.The law at issue applied copyright protection to mostly works authored outside the United States which had not be previously subject to U.S. copyright protection. The plaintiffs were people who had previously been able to access materials as public domain but under the amendments, the materials were covered by copyright.